Saturday 31 July 2021
Grammozis fends off criticism tough
Schalke 04 is already stressed
The footballers of FC Schalke 04 screwed up the start of the mission “direct resurgence”. The performance against Hamburger SV wasn’t bad, but the result was amazing. Coach Dimitrios Grammozis is under pressure again, but defends himself too early on criticism.
Suddenly Dimitrios Grammozis’s tone of voice became serious. “If we had made our chances against HSV, nobody would have complained about possession. If you don’t allow scoring chances, that’s also a kind of dominance,” said the Schalke 04 head coach before the second game on Sunday (1.30 p.m. in the live ticker at ntv.de) at Holstein Kiel, third in the table last season in the 2nd Bundesliga. The 1: 3 in the opening game a week ago against Hamburger SV had shown good approaches on the part of the Royal Blues, but in the end there was an unfortunate but painful 1: 3 defeat. However, the Schalke fan base was partly disgruntled by the possession of only 28 percent of the squires against HSV.
For Grammozis, the positive prevailed: “We played well defensively up to the 86th minute and had crystal clear chances of deciding the game. Of course we are annoyed about the goals we conceded, but we took a lot of positive approaches with us.” The training week did well to give a “completely new team” more cohesion. And Grammozis is of the firm conviction: “A team can also be dominant by playing against the ball.” The bottom line from the HSV duel, however, is: “We have to improve our game with the ball so that we can get more calm.”
Latza’s failure weighs heavily
The game on the fjord will reveal where the traditional club is headed. Even the storks did not get off to a good start because of the 3-0 defeat at FC St. Pauli on the first day of the match. “As Schalke 04, we have to be broad-minded. We want to play every game in such a way that we win,” emphasized newcomer Dominick Drexler, who was brought in from Cologne and who used to play for Kiel, at the press conference. The failure of captain Danny Latza (ligament injury in his knee) weighs heavily, but Drexler knows where the key is to be found: “We have to distribute the skills of Danny over several shoulders.”
After all, S04 is in the process of finding a replacement for Latza. However, there is no enforcement yet. “If you have the right person in front of the shotgun, then you like to wait another day or two,” said sports director Rouven Schröder to the funke media. It looks clearer with the team line-up against Kiel. In attack, Grammozis continues to rely on the duo Marius Bülter and Simon Terodde: “Marius and Simon did it really well, I liked the mix very much. Both deserve to play again in Kiel.”
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